President-elect Joe Biden speaks in Atlanta on Monday, January 4, 2021 as he campaigns for Georgia Democratic candidates for the U.S. Senate, Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff.
Carolyn Kaster | AP
President-elect Joe Biden traveled to Atlanta the day before the Georgia Senate runoff election to do more than just strengthen the two Democrats in Tuesday’s election.
Choosing Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock, Biden insisted that the votes in Georgia will go beyond Peach State to shape the success of the new president’s agenda across the country.
“By electing Jon and the pastor, you can break the deadlock that has gripped Washington and this nation,” Biden said at a campaign rally. “With their votes in the Senate, we will be able to make the strides we need to make on jobs, health care, justice, the environment and so many other things.”
If Democrats Ossoff and Warnock beat Republican Sens. David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler, respectively, Biden’s party will control the Senate for the next two years. A GOP victory means Republicans hold the chamber – and have more control over what politics emerges from Washington.
Biden will sit in the White House after January 20th. The majority of Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s Democratic House will work to get his agenda passed. Still, a Senate led by GOP Majority Leader Mitch McConnell can put pressure on Biden at every turn – legislators, candidates for the executive branch and judges.
“If Democrats win, they have the option to approve its candidates and laws with or without GOP endorsement,” Darrell West, vice president and director of governance studies at the Brookings Institution, said in an email. “Since most Republicans are likely to be against some nominations and things like big spending packages or tax hikes for the rich, the GOP control would make it very difficult for Biden to do the things he advocated.”
Political giants and donors, large and small across the country, got into the Georgia runoff because the races alone will rule over control of the Senate. If both Perdue and Loeffler won, the Republicans would hold a 52-48 majority. A GOP win would give the party a 51-49 lead.
If Democrats sweep both races, each party has 50 seats. Vice-President-elect Kamala Harris would then hold a groundbreaking vote. Senate minority chairman Chuck Schumer, DN.Y., and not McConnell, would decide what happens in the Senate.
Schumer said the chamber’s democratic scrutiny was “the biggest difference” in helping Biden execute his campaign plans.
“The best way to ensure that a positive agenda can be implemented and helping working families in Georgia and across the country is to elect Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff to the Senate,” Schumer said in a November statement Biden’s presidential election victory.
Republicans see Georgia as their last defense against democratic politics. Perdue, who was vying for his second six-year term at the age of 71, and Loeffler, a 50-year-old candidate who plans to retire the last two years of GOP Senator Johnny Isakson’s tenure, have their party’s last chance at runoff denotes to stop describing you as socialism.
Georgia helped get Biden to the White House in November by scooping a victory with 11,779 votes. In his two-month quest to overthrow the democratic elections, President Donald Trump has pressured Georgian officials to cast valid votes.
The races in the Senate on November 3 went to the runoff when no candidate received 50% of the vote.
Even if Democrats win both races, Biden will likely need varying levels of support from the GOP in the Senate to achieve his priorities. Legislation takes 60 votes to clear a filibuster in the Senate, meaning even a Democratic majority would need Republican support for most of the bills. An exception is the annual budget comparison, with which the GOP passed its tax law in 2017 with a majority of votes.
The Senate can approve cabinet candidates and judges with a simple majority. Through control of the Chamber and its committees, a party can also decide when to hold hearings and send a nomination to the Senate.
While some Democrats have been pushing to end the filibuster and expand the Supreme Court, Biden has yet to embrace both ideas.
Biden has said that another coronavirus relief package will be his priority when he takes office. While Democrats could pass an auxiliary bill with the support of the GOP, a Senate majority would help them shape it more to their liking. McConnell may refuse to vote on a proposal that includes state and local government relief – a Democratic priority – or excludes corporate liability protection that Democrats speak out against.
Ossoff, a 33-year-old investigative filmmaker, and Warnock, the 51-year-old pastor of Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, pounded Perdue and Loeffler for months because Congress hadn’t sent another pandemic aid. Republicans eventually voted for a $ 900 billion year-end aid package and voted in favor of 2,000 direct payments after Trump pushed for them.
Biden on Monday combined the runoff election with Washington’s ability to send out checks.
“If you send Jon and the pastor to Washington, those $ 2,000 checks will go out the door, giving hope, decency, and honor back to so many people who are struggling,” he said.
Biden’s recovery platform has planks that many or most Republicans will oppose. The plan includes tax hikes for businesses and the richest Americans, as well as clean energy infrastructure projects (likely fueled by substantial public funding).
The Democratic President-elect has also pushed for an option for public insurance. The vast majority of Republicans are opposed to adding more state health plans, while some more conservative Democrats shied away from the idea. The proposal may not see the light of day in a GOP-held Senate.
Most GOP lawmakers oppose a minimum wage of $ 15 an hour. The leaders of Congress in Biden and Democratic want to raise the hourly wage from $ 7.25 to $ 15.
Many of Biden’s cabinet candidates would come through a Republican-led Senate. The GOP will offer little resistance to decisions like Janet Yellen as Treasury Secretary.
GOP senators made at least one choice: Neera Tanden, Biden’s decision to head the bureau of administration and budget. Brookings’ West said she would benefit from Democrats taking control of the chamber.
Democrats are eager to win the Georgia runoff as it may be their best chance to control the White House, House and Senate for years to come. Republicans could gain ground in 2022 as the presidential party loses its seats in most of the mid-term elections.
Democrats enter the new Congress with 222 seats, four more than the 218 needed for a majority. While Republicans will have to defend 21 Senate seats in 2022 and Democrats will try to hold 13, the GOP could have the more favorable political environment.
The possible loss of power makes Georgia and the next two years more important for Biden’s agenda.
“He should publish his top priority items immediately as there is no guarantee that his party will control the House or Senate after the midterm elections,” West said.
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